Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/727077
By: Skip Myslenski (NUsports.com) 6 THE SKIP REPORT THE SKIP REPORT "I'm Really Excited About Tomorrow's Practice" UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . . PAT FITZGERALD was asked Monday if he thought the game Saturday against Duke would mirror the defensive tussle the two teams had last September in Durham. "I'm really excited about tomorrow's practice," he said, and then he laughed loudly. "Where we're at right now, I think predicting and projecting is a waste of my time. Obviously, I wouldn't have predicted our O line would play like they did on Saturday. If I would have, I would have played some of the twos the whole day. Tuesday is a really important practice for this year's team. The attitude that they demonstrate and the way we go out and execute fundamentally. That was the biggest thing. You look at some things that we drill and we work, then you get out in the moment and it doesn't happen. You just sit there and scratch your head as a coach. You look at the guys and you ask them why and you go out and keep grinding at it and influx competition. That's where we're at." FITZGERALD staunchly believes competition breeds improvement and so, after his defensive line's tepid showing in the season opener against Western Michigan, he introduced it to that unit in the practices that followed. Then, last Saturday against Illinois State, the 'Cats used a 10-man rotation on that line, and it responded with a performance far better than the one it had given against the Broncos. It is no surprise, then, that this week there will be an open competition on the O line, which was so ineffective in its team loss to the Redbirds. "We got our butts kicked up front," even guard Connor Mahoney admitted right after that game. "Our offensive line play was as inconsistent as I've seen," Fitzgerald said Monday. "So we're going to influx competition. We're not just going to stand pat. We did that a week ago. The D line was not good enough and we made some changes, and we saw a return on those changes. We obviously have got to see a drastic improvement up front for us to be able to run the ball more consistently." THERE WAS NO CONSISTENCY AT ALL to the offense against the Redbirds, which limited it to 86 net rushing yards on 31 carries (2.8 ypc) and limited quarterback Clayton Thorson to just 17 completions on his 41 attempts. "That isn't going to win you a whole lot of football games," Fitzgerald would say of that last stat. "It's part on Clayton, it's part on getting hit, it's part on getting drops. It's not one thing. I wish it was. If it was, we'd go practice it today and be good to go. We've just got to get much more consistent." "There were a few key plays where I didn't play as well as I should have. Those last two possessions, if I make a throw here, a throw there, maybe Illinois State doesn't get the ball back. That's on me. We've got to get more consistent." - Clayton Thorson -